Building African democracy: The role of civil society-based groups in strengthening Malian civic community

This dissertation asks what is the role of civil society-based groups in democratic transitions and consolidations in Africa? By using the case of a transiting democracy, Mali, I explore the development and eventual success of opposition movements. I employ a modified theoretical approach to civil society which views civil society as a political space and then disaggregates the constituent groups that operate within it.;Borrowing insights about mobilization and identity from social movements theory, the work poses three key questions. First, have civil society-based groups in Mali performed the type of democratizing functions that scholars of democratic transitions assume they should? This question is addressed through a detailed reconstruction of the historical record of opposition movements in Mali over the past thirty years. Second, is successful democratic consolidation based in part on the success of civil society-based groups in undergoing their own transitions to democracy? A case study of Mali's student movement in the 1990s serves as the empirical basis on which to answer this question. The student movement is also compared to a host of other group types active in Malian civil society. Finally, does participation in civil society-based groups enhance measures of civic community among Malian youth? I employ a political attitudes survey to address this question.;This study also provides the only comprehensive summary of Malian political history from 1960--7 available in English. In addition, detailed information about the relationships between various youth groups and associations, other civic associations, political parties, and the state is included. I provide empirical evidence to support an interlocking and interpenetrated view of civil society vis a vis the state. Without romanticizing civic groups, I conclude that the strengthening of certain types of these groups can lead to stronger and more sustainable democracy. This will be so, however, only if done in a way that allows them to maintain their independent and popular nature. If on the other hand the associations are co-opted by the state or by political parties, they may well lose not only their popular influence but also their inherent ability to pressure the state toward substantive democratic reforms. This is of particular importance in Africa where established patterns of neopatrimonial rule are a serious threat to nascent democracies. In that event, democratization ends at the most formal levels of elections and certain civil liberties, and its popular promise is unlikely to be realized. Thus, this dissertation tries to answer recent critics of civil society literature by conditionally affirming the democratic potential of civil society. The work is able to do so through an analytical strategy of disaggregating the political space of civil society and differentiating the groups that inhabit it. Thus the democratic potential of civil society in transitions to democracy is seen as an empirical question. The case of Mali indicates a salutary influence on the part of civil society-based groups and provides us with evidence about the nature of the groups that will likely serve a similar function in other contexts of democratization.